Conversation Points for Mark 1:1-8

Study Format:
1. Read passage aloud. What did you notice in the reading? What words or phrase caught your attention?
2. Read passage aloud a second time. What questions would you ask the text?
3. Read passage aloud a third time. What do you hear God calling you to do or be in response to this text?

Interesting Ideas to Consider:
“The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Mark 1:1
• V. 1 seems to be a title for the whole Gospel. There is a lot packed into this one sentence, so this first section is going to look closely at just this one verse.
• The opening word “beginning” (arche), could refer to either a temporal beginning (the beginning of Jesus’ ministry) or the opening of a narrative (the beginning of this account of Jesus ministry).
• The phrase translated as “good news” in the NRSV, is the Greek word euangelion. Another common translation of euangelion is “gospel.” Although we commonly associate the word gospel with the four gospels in the Bible, as a narrative account of Jesus’ life and ministry, the word in the original Greek means “good news” or “proclamation.” The English “gospel” comes from the Old English “god” meaning “good”, “spel” meaning “story” or “message.” This word next appears in v. 14, when Jesus began to travel around Galilee at the start of his preaching ministry. In the letters of Paul, the word gospel refers to the preaching message of Jesus as the source of salvation.
• “of Jesus Christ” is written in what is called the genitive case, which is a case in the Greek language that indicates possession or close association. This indicates that Jesus himself is the good news, not that Jesus is delivering a record of the good news.
• “Christ” (Christos) is a Greek word for the Hebrew messiah or anointed one. [Totally unrelated fun fact: the “ch” sound in the Greek alphabet is the letter chi, which looks like this χ. It is where the abbreviation Merry X-mas comes from, the X standing for the Greek chi, the first letter in the word Christ. If someone tells you that “Merry X-mas” is a war on Christmas, explain to them that they are not well-versed in their knowledge of Koine Greek. I’m sure that will go over swimmingly, but you will be right]. In the first century, the term Christ often referred to a person who claimed to be a political leader in the Davidic tradition, essentially a claim to the kingship of Israel. This would have been a basis for execution based on the political threat to the Empire. The gospels use Christ as a title to indicate that Jesus was the anointed one of God (Hebrew messiah).
• The second title assigned in this sentence is “Son of God.” For early Christians, the title “messiah/Christ” and “Son of God” were closely associated. The expression has origins in ancient Israel’s understanding of the close relationship between God and the Davidic kings. The Davidic kings were understood as sons of God by adoption. In the gospels, first here in Mark and then in the others, the title “Son of God” takes on the meaning we are familiar with today, connoting Jesus’ unique relationship with God the Father, and the divinity of Jesus.
• The first thing Mark does after starting his telling of the good news of Jesus is to connect it to the Old Testament prophesies about salvation. The citation attributed to Isaiah is actually a combination of the reference to a messenger in Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah’s description of the wilderness in Isaiah 40:3.
• Other Old Testament imagery is found in the description of John himself. His clothing is reminiscent of Elijah in 2 Kings 1:8 (“a hairy man, with a leather belt around his waist”), and his diet, locusts and honey instead of meat and wine, call to mind Daniel 1:8. • The wilderness is an important location theologically. In the Old Testament, salvation usually comes from the wilderness. The wilderness is a setting in the stories of Moses, Elijah, and David.
• The idea of baptism as a ritual washing was not unique to John. What was unique was the idea of baptism as a vehicle for repentance and forgiveness. Also unique about John’s baptism was the idea that it was not an individual purification ritual but a way that a community was gathered and created.

Works Sourced:
Perkins, Pheme. “The Gospel of Mark.” The New Interpreter’s Bible Volume VIII. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995.